Kensington Palace went on a briefing spree over the weekend, which means that the British print media is full of stories about Prince William and Prince Harry’s relationship, all ahead of the release of the last three episodes of Netflix’s Harry & Meghan on Thursday. There’s definitely an aspect of “hit dogs holler” about William crying and raging before we even get to the meat of “how things fell apart.” If you ask me, William is not only telling us explicitly who was behind much of briefing against the Sussexes (and we already know that), but he’s selfishly hogging the narrative when it’s clear that his poor Wiglet is going to need a PR boost when all is said and done.

Anyway, one of the most psychotic KP-approved pieces was the Telegraph’s “BROTHERS at ARMS: How the Windsor boys went to war with each other” by Hannah Furness. The Windsor “boys” are 40 years old and 38 years old. Stop infantilizing both of them. While much of the piece is just “they used to be so close BEFORE MEGHAN,” the real star of the psychotic show is the archival photos which were edited to look “burned.” As in, William’s literal incandescent rage has singed old photos of his brother. You can see the images here. Some highlights from the story:

Rival royal courts. Before Megxit, before Meghan, plans were already in place to one day go their separate ways. All they needed was a catalyst.

The shared KP office: The idea that the Cambridges and Prince Harry could work together indefinitely, one insider said, gradually seemed “misguided”. “It puts too much pressure on their relationship,” they said. “It’s not healthy.”

When Harry met Meghan: William is said to have raised concerns about how quickly the relationship was moving, the degree of his bluntness depending on who is telling the story. “Harry was tired of the dynamic that had become established between him and his older brother,” they say. If William had once been a father figure, Harry now had someone else he listened to. “A lot of this predates Meghan,” says a source. “But it’s fair to say her arrival changed things.”

The imperfect system: The Cambridges, relatively content with the imperfect system they had settled on to balance their family’s public and private roles, watched as Harry and Meghan tried to reset their own rules around royal births and christenings, to increasing public ill-feeling. The crunch point, say those familiar with negotiations, was professional. The Sussexes wanted to tread their own path with commercial work, while the Cambridges could not. “One wanted to flex, the other couldn’t flex,” says a source.

Meghan is the star: If William and Kate, who had their own rock star stage years earlier, were allergic to celebrity, only speaking at public engagements if absolutely necessary, the sight of Meghan so embracing the spotlight was alien. “They [the Sussexes] want to be the stars,” it was said at the time.

Separating households: “There was a divorce going on but the terms hadn’t been worked through,” says a source, wryly. “A lot of the talk behind the scenes was ‘we need to bring these brothers back together, they’re always better together’. They were still talking, but it was tense.”

No reunions: At a Commonwealth Day Service, the Sussexes’ final royal engagement, the two couples could barely swap a friendly word. By the time the details of the Oprah interview were aired, from the anonymous royal racist to “she made me cry”, any pretence of reunion had been blown out of the water.

William won’t be negative about Harry?? Prince William is said not to be watching the Netflix documentary. Despite “anger and sadness” about it all, friends claim he still won’t tolerate a negative word from others about his brother. But no-one really believes a reconciliation is close. “Everyone thought they needed to get back together,” says a long-standing ally. “Now I don’t think there’s anyone who really believes that’s possible. Working together will never happen. “But can they be brothers again? You’ve got to hope. How much longer can this all go on?”

[From The Telegraph]

Ah, to be a royal reporter and try to pretend that William and Harry’s estrangement is simply a case of Harry wanting to be more commercial. There’s this fundamental belief within the British media and the royal family that Harry and Meghan’s words can’t be taken at face value, that their words need to be filtered through William’s perspective or the courtiers’ narratives. Harry has said repeatedly why they left: to protect his wife and children and to protect his own mental health. Harry and Meghan are going to get much, much more specific about why they left in the final three episodes of the Netflix series, so why is William sticking with this bullsh-t? Who is even buying it?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

I CANNOT WAIT!!! The long-awaited “truth bombs” are coming, y’all. Prince Harry is ready. He’s been ready to call out his trash family. Ahead of the last three episodes of Harry & Meghan coming out on Thursday, Netflix has released another trailer. It’s badass.

“You’re on the Freedom Flight” with that cheeky smile. Harry knew. He pulled it off. He escaped, he got his wife and son out of there and they survived. “To see this institutional gaslighting” THAT’S MY KING!!! “I wasn’t being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves.” AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION, MEGHAN, THANK YOU. Christopher Bouzy coming in and talking about what was happening online, and the recruitment of bots, trolls and liars… that’s going to be fascinating.

“They were happy to lie to protect my brother. They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.” And then Tyler Perry!! Yes!! OMG, this is going to be amazing.

Meanwhile, people are still crying about how the Sussexes excluded photos of William and Kate from their 2018 wedding in the Netflix series. The only thing I’ll say about that is that I hope Meghan says something about how Kate was a C-U-Next-Tuesday to her around the wedding, and how Kate wore white to the wedding.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Netflix.

Introduction: Minutes 0 to 2:30
I’ve been sick and you can hear it in my voice. It reminds Chandra of Polly Draper from 30 Something. We’ll have an episode out next week and will be off the 24th and 31st for the holiday. You can listen below!

Royals: Minutes 2:30 to 27:00
Will and Kate didn’t even invite the nominees to the Earthshot Awards, which seemed like a parody. The celebrities attended in person though. This is especially hypocritical because there were stories in the British press about how the Waleses were so much better than the Sussexes and how William calls the Sussexes the Kardashians. This would have been a great opportunity to have the scientists get together and network.

We got to see Harry and Meghan at the Ripple of Hope Awards, where they were honored for their activism. Meghan was wearing a beautiful sleek white off the shoulder Louis Vuitton gown with sleek hair. She just glowed. We remember her Salute to Freedom Gown because it was shown on the Harry and Meghan docuseries.

We got the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan on Netflix and we’ve both watched them. Liz Garbus did a great job with their story. Most of it was known to us already but it’s a great recap of their story and I was blown away by how well it was told. Chandra wishes it had come out earlier. We’re not the audience for this series, people who have a passing interest in them are. We hope Omid Scobie is in the second half and we’ve heard that Christopher Bouzy is in it. We liked how much of Meghan’s background pre-Harry the series covered. Meghan was so successful, fun and cool before she met her future husband.

The British media has attacked Meghan for not having family other than her mother at her wedding, but the royals told her not to invite her favorite niece, Samantha’s daughter Ashleigh, with whom she was close. That was new information to us. We were so impressed by Meghan’s mom Doria. We liked how Samantha and Meghan’s dad Tom were covered briefly and dismissed. We learned that Thomas’s story about being yelled at by Harry on the phone was a lie because all he did was text with Meghan and it didn’t even sound like him.

We liked the section that put the racist treatment of Meghan into context with Brexit, the commonwealth and anti-immigration sentiment. Meghan explained her fashion choices and why she had a neutral color palette, although we think that’s just her style. She also told the story of meeting Will and Kate for the first time and trying to hug them. She was very diplomatic about it. Chandra mentions how Meghan doesn’t have deference toward royals because she’s American. She’d already met other royals before Will and Kate and we assume that Eugenie and Beatrice were warmer toward her.

Here’s a link to the tweet I mentioned from Robin about how the series was explanatory and not retaliatory. Chandra says they wanted to establish their love story before explaining how things went so wrong in the UK. She also mentions the story about how the palaces denied being contacted for comment but that Netflix came with receipts. Harry explained how the press treatment of Meghan was racist and how his family blew him off and told them their wives went through it too.

Comments of the week: Minutes 27:00 to end
My comment of the week is from SAS on the post where Hecate wrote about Hilary Duff’s fitness journey and her battle with an eating disorder.

Chandra’s comment of the week is from ArtHistorian on the post about how much William hates Harry and Meghan.

Thanks for listening bitches!

photos courtesy Netflix

A week ago, royal sources were swearing up and down that royal sources had never, ever briefed against the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Royal sources flat-out insisted that nefarious courtiers had NEVER briefed against Harry and Meghan under the guise of royal sources, and never, ever at the behest of their primaries, the royals themselves. We’re about 48 hours away from royal reporters insisting that they have never received palace briefings in their entire lives. I bring this up because Becky English at the Daily Mail continues to have the inside track on Prince William’s incandescent rage. While Buckingham Palace is clearly briefing everyone that there will be no formal “response” (as of yet) to the Sussexes’ docuseries, Kensington Palace can’t shut up about it. KP can’t shut up about how much Pegasus loathes his brother and “f–king hates” Meghan. KP can’t shut up about how William will “never trust” Harry again and they’ll never be close again. To which I say, don’t threaten Harry with a good time.

The Prince of Wales is unlikely ever to make up with his estranged brother following his Netflix betrayal, friends fear. William, 40, is said to be angry about the disrespect he feels Harry showed to their grandmother when she was alive during the Megxit saga. And sources believe the bombshell documentary – which it is understood the heir to the throne has not watched, but is likely to do so at some point – will do little to change his mind. He is also said to be distrustful of Harry’s motives given that he has a book coming out early next year.

‘All relationships are built on trust but for members of the Royal Family, who live their life in the spotlight, doubly so,’ a friend said. ‘The prince is a very private man and what Harry is doing is the anathema of everything he believes. On that alone, many believe it is unlikely he will ever be able to repair his relationship with them. Too much water has gone under the bridge.’

The Mail revealed yesterday how royal insiders have been left particularly upset by the Netflix programme’s criticism of Queen Elizabeth and her Commonwealth legacy, which was dismissed as ‘Empire 2.0’. One source pointed out that Harry and Meghan previously served as president and vice president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, which supports youth empowerment in Commonwealth countries, and had been happy to be associated with it ‘until they quit their jobs to make money’. They also feel the Sussexes’ decision to secretly record 15 hours of video diaries, which they handed over to the documentary-makers, was an ‘appalling’ betrayal of trust. They started filming in March 2020 – almost 12 months before they officially stepped down as senior working royals.

‘Harry has made a virtue of protecting his grandmother through the whole of this saga –repeatedly making the point about how much respect he had for her and ruling her out of his claims about racism. And yet this is what they were planning the whole time? It’s appalling,’ another source said.

The duke and duchess signed lucrative deals, thought to be worth more than £100 million, with Netflix and Spotify after quitting as working royals.

[From The Daily Mail]

As I watched Harry & Meghan, I idly wondered if the Windsors were going to throw a tantrum about the fact that the Sussexes handed over their 2020 video diaries to Netflix, not to mention personal photos from when they were “working royals.” Guess this is my answer – I think it was smart for the Sussexes to document everything from their exit and hand off that footage to a filmmaker. It was an important moment in their lives and it’s part of a historical record of the monarchy. How important? Well, we’ll have a better idea ten years from now, but at this rate, it looks like the Sussexes understood full well the significance of what they were doing.

William’s ass hurts for an entirely different reason than “video diaries are a betrayal” or “Harry is disrespecting the QUEEN!” William doesn’t care about any of that, and if you took away those complaints, he could come up with a dozen other dumb “reasons” why he hates Harry so much. The real reason William has so much hate is because he’s stupid and lazy and he thought Harry would be around forever to hide behind. I’m sure William does distrust Harry. What’s left unspoken is how Harry has been completely done with William for years. Harry stopped trusting William long ago too, probably around the time when William was briefing against Meghan while she was pregnant and suicidal.

Becky English also includes the royal sources “pointing out inconsistencies” in the docuseries, like the fact that QEII sent Susan Hussey to talk to Meghan in the beginning. Susan Hussey, the deaf racist who talked sh-t about Meghan to other people. “Insiders” also claim that it was Meghan’s “idea” to not invite her niece to the wedding and that Kensington Palace was “aggressively” trying to stop the negative stories about the Sussexes. Yeah, those insiders are saying that… in a story about how William is incandescent with betrayal at Harry. Sure.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

Diddy has just announced a surprise baby! He has a new baby daughter, Love Sean Combs, his seventh child. Aside from sharing her name, he’s shared no further details, including the identity of the mother. However, a source close to Diddy shared that the baby was born sometime in October.

On Dec. 10, Sean Love “Diddy” Combs made a major announcement on social media: His family has grown.

“I’m so blessed to welcome my baby girl Love Sean Combs to the world,” he tweeted. “Mama Combs, Quincy, Justin, Christian, Chance, D’Lila, Jessie and myself all love you so much! God is the Greatest!”

Diddy, who legally changed his name to Sean Love Combs in 2021, did not clarify his comments further. E! News has reached out to the 53-year-old’s rep for more details.

TMZ quoted a source close to Diddy as saying that the baby was born in October. The identity of her mother was not made public.

Diddy shares son Justin Dior, 28, with ex Misa Hylton, and co-parents daughter Chance Combs, 16, with Sarah Chapman. Diddy also raised Quincy Taylor Brown, 31, and Christian “King” Combs, 24, and twin daughters D’Lila and Jessie James, 15, with late ex Kim Porter.

Diddy was last linked romantically to City Girls rapper Yung Miami. In June, on the premiere episode of her REVOLT podcast Caresha Please, Diddy appeared as her first celebrity guest. On the episode, he said, “I’m single. But I’m dating. I’m just taking my time with life.”

[From E! News]

Well Yung Miami isn’t the mother. I’m going to guess that the mother of the baby is not famous, not even a “model” or “DJ” like some of Nick Cannon’s partners. If she was famous, she would probably want her identity out there to raise her profile a bit being linked to Diddy. Maybe I’m just cynical and wrong though! I do think the name is bad though. Diddy just legally changed his name to Sean Love Combs. The baby is Love Sean Combs. Confusing. It’s like she’s really just an extension of him, huh? Very narcissistic. He’s already had six children to name after himself and his many names and didn’t have to put it all on this one baby he’s having at 53. Doesn’t the mom get a say in the name at all? Anyway, congratulations to the new parents! Baby Love will definitely be doted upon.

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Photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Getty

Here are some photos from Friday’s iheartradio Jingle Ball red carpet. People were freaking out about these Katie Holmes photos all weekend, but I’d like to discuss them in the sartorial context of some of the other people in attendance, namely Dove Cameron, Demi Lovato and Dua Lipa. When the Katie Holmes pics went viral, people were like “wow, what a Y2K look” and “this is not it, Katie.” While that’s true – and the jeans are so, so bad – what’s also true is that we are in a very real ‘90s fashion revival.

So much of what I’m seeing on the younger people is from the micro-fashion era of 1998-2003, when Britney replaced grunge-alt, when people wearing dresses over jeans went mainstream, the mainstreaming of ‘90s vampire-goths, the proto-Juicy Couture era becoming the mainstream high-fashion sweats era. It was a chaotic and terrible time. I don’t want to go back to it, but it’s fully back. As I said, look no further than the other people at this event. What Dove Cameron is wearing is how Mark Wahlberg dressed all the time in that micro-era. Demi Lovato is doing Janet Jackson-Rhythm Nation. Dua Lipa is doing mainstream goth.

Anyway, Katie could have pulled this off if A) the jeans were better or B) she had worn black palazzo pants with the terrible top. I have no real comment on the sneakers, I bet they were comfortable. Katie has always had such weird style, but I applaud her for trying different sh-t. Or dusting off some of her Dawson’s Creek-era stuff.

Photos courtesy of Jordan Hinton / Image Press Agency / Avalon.

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I first noticed actress Brooke Smith when she guested on Ray Donovan. I remember being so impressed with her that I looked her up. I’ve since seen her on Bates Motel and on Big Sky (I only watched half of the first season, it got complicated!) and she can definitely act. I just learned that she was the kidnapping victim in Silence of The Lambs and is best known for her work on Grey’s Anatomy, which I don’t watch. (Peridot is our Grey’s expert! She’s seen every episode.) Brooke, 55, has a new coffee table book out with photos she took of her time on the punk scene in New York City in the 80s. She’s doing interviews to promote it. It was so nostalgic for me to read about that time and to see her photos. I’m a little younger than her but I hung out with the goth crowd in Buffalo, NY in the early 90s. I could relate to so much of what she’s said in interviews about that time in her life. I’m going to quote an interview she did with EVGrieve.com and she also has a new interview about this in People.

As an unhappy teen growing up in Rockland County in the 1980s, Brooke Smith found solace riding the 9A bus into the city.

Once here, she’d take the A train to West Fourth Street. One day decided to keep walking on Eighth Street into the East Village and onto St. Mark’s Place.

Here, she found her home, a place where she felt as if she belonged…

While preparing to move about 12 years ago, Smith found a cardboard box full of the photos she took in the 1980s while part of the punk/hardcore scene on the Lower East Side. This discovery eventually led to a solo show at Primary Gallery.

These photos are the subject of a new photo book, “Sunday Matinee,” which features hundreds of photographs of the East Village in the mid-1980s and bands such as Bad Brains, Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Murphy’s Law, Warzone and others. There are also recollections by band members and others involved in the scene.

What were some ways this scene helped you forge your identity?
There was no separation between audience and performer. It was our scene, and we were doing it for ourselves, not to get rich or famous. So I think that helped me. I learned to trust my instincts as an artist, and to stay true to myself and to always be authentic.

What do you hope that people take away from “Sunday Matinee”?
It’s a love letter to that time and place and especially those people. I hope people get the message to be themselves. Don’t try to fit in. If you can find a group of people, or even just one other person who shares your interests, you can create whatever you want.

[From EVGrieve.com]

She was smart to take pictures and save them. I wish I had more photos from college and high school, but we were using disposable cameras and forgetting to get the film developed or losing it. Plus we didn’t have even flip phones at that time, not to mention cameras. As for finding people with your interests, I loved that quote because it reminded me so much of our Celebitchy Zoom group. The women in that group are just incredible. I’ve never known so many people who share my interests and values and it’s been so supportive and loving. Plus we’re all excellent gossips I have to say. Back in the 80s and 90s we met our people out in the wild but with the Internet we can connect with our exact niche of friends and it’s wonderful. I’m not saying one is superior though and am glad that I’ve been alive to be able to experience both sides of that.

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She knew Jeff Buckley!!

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Netflix’s Harry & Meghan is a hit! The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a real Midas Touch, don’t they? They always sell out, they always top the ratings, everything they touch turns to gold. It looks smarter and smarter that Netflix locked them into a production deal, doesn’t it? Netflix released the early-days viewership for the H&M docuseries – the first three episodes of which dropped on Thursday – and it’s one of Netflix’s biggest shows of the year, especially in the US and UK. According to Netflix’s numbers, Harry & Meghan had 2.4 views in the first 24 hours IN THE UK. The first-day ratings for the docuseries were also double the first-day ratings of The Crown’s Season 5. I would imagine the numbers will be phenomenal for this weekend too – many people didn’t have time to watch the three episodes on Thursday, but they had time this weekend.

Meanwhile, the NY Times did a piece on the director of the series, Liz Garbus, and the background of how she came onto the project. Harry and Meghan handed Garbus fifteen hours of their personal footage, video diaries which they filmed in 2020 as they were Sussexiting. When Garbus was asked how much control the Sussexes had over the series and whether they had final approval, she tells the Times: “It was a collaboration. You can keep asking me, but that’s what I’ll say.” But the most interesting part is where the Sussexes’ spokesperson shuts down one of the British media’s big whines/talking points, which is “Harry and Meghan are hypocrites for crying about privacy and then making this docuseries.” Here’s that section:

Some have questioned why Harry and Meghan chose to make a documentary, suggesting that the couple’s decision to give up their royal duties meant they wanted to lead a more private life. In a statement to The Times, the couple’s global press secretary, Ashley Hansen, disputed this narrative.

“Their statement announcing their decision to step back mentions nothing of privacy and reiterates their desire to continue their roles and public duties,” she said. “Any suggestion otherwise speaks to a key point of this series. They are choosing to share their story, on their terms, and yet the tabloid media has created an entirely untrue narrative that permeates press coverage and public opinion. The facts are right in front of them.”

[From the NYT]

For what it’s worth, Harry was the one who said stuff about privacy over the years, but it’s true that by the time they exited, it was less about privacy and more about escaping from the daily vitriol and attacks. Meghan has never claimed to want “privacy,” because she understands that what she really wants is to set and enforce boundaries. A more cogent criticism might be that Meghan and Harry want “control of their narrative,” to which I say, that’s not a criticism, especially not for royalty. Everyone wants control of their narrative. Everyone wants to set and enforce boundaries. Everyone wants the right to exist without being smeared and lied about constantly. Everyone wants the right to tell their story in their own time and in their own way.

Speaking of, we’re finally getting some fun wedding photos! But I thought they wanted privacy!!! *sobs*

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

It is beyond appalling to watch the Susan Hussey debacle unfold in real time, with Buckingham Palace completely bungling their reaction to the incident from November 29th. To recap, that Tuesday, there was a daytime reception at BP, hosted by Queen Camilla. The whole point of the reception was to bring together activists and advocates attached to work about domestic violence and violence against women. Ngozi Fulani was there representing Sistah Space, a non-profit dealing with violence against Black women specifically. Within minutes of Fulani’s entrance at the reception, Susan Hussey – a long time lady-in-waiting to QEII and an emeritus LIW to Camilla – began her racist interrogation of Fulani.

When Fulani reported Hussey’s comments and behavior the next day, the palace went into ass-covering mode rather than accountability mode. Instead of calling Fulani, apologizing to her and giving her a platform for Sistah Space and her own experiences, the Palace lied about contacting her. They pushed out Hussey and issued a statement about her unacceptable behavior. And that’s it. That’s all that was done. Since then, Hussey has been protected and coddled by the media and the palace while Fulani had to fend for herself as a wave of online and print-media attacks were launched against her. The palace could have and should have stepped in within a day or two and issued a public statement to at least make a pretense of shielding Fulani. They did not. So the attacks and smears continued, and now Sistah Space is temporarily shutting down.

A charity led by a black woman who was repeatedly asked where she was “really” from at a royal event has temporarily stopped its work over safety. Sistah Space was thrown into the spotlight when its founder, Ngozi Fulani, said she felt she was “interrogated” by Lady Susan Hussey at Buckingham Palace last month. It says it has now “ceased many” of its operations over safety.

Ms Fulani has said she suffered online abuse after speaking out. Lady Hussey – Prince William’s godmother and the late Queen’s lady-in-waiting – has since left her honorary role within the Royal Household.

In a statement on its Instagram page, domestic violence charity Sistah Space said: “Thank you for the continued support and messages. Unfortunately recent events meant that we were forced to temporarily cease many of our operations to ensure the safety of our service users and our team. We are overwhelmed by the amount of support and encouragement and look forward to fully reinstating our services as soon as safely possible.”

Ms Fulani said earlier this week that she, her family and team had been put under “immense pressure” and received “horrific abuse” on social media.

[From BBC]

As Fulani said last week, this is what happens when Black women report their abuse, this is what happens when Black women stand up for themselves against racist pigs. It’s completely disgusting that Buckingham Palace still hasn’t done one f–king thing to help or protect Fulani or Sistah Space. I’m not saying that a personal statement from Queen Camilla would stop the harassment of Fulani, but I do think it would minimize the nature of the harassment and abuse. Besides that, it would just be good optics and these people only give a f–k about the optics. Instead, the palace’s silence is their complicity, once again. Over and over. They’re telling us who they are: they fundamentally do not believe that Black women should be protected. Queen Camilla was so eager to take credit for all of this work against domestic violence, then Camilla stands idly by as one of the activists invited to the palace is inundated with abuse over reporting the racism she suffered AT THE PALACE.

Photos courtesy of Sistah Space, Avalon Red, Cover Images & Sky News.

Sydney Sweeney is one of British GQ’s people of the year, part of their big “Men of the Year” issue. Whenever I write about her, people are always like “who?” or “I don’t like her,” but I’m kind of into her. She’s cute, she’s interesting, she’s not cookie-cutter. She hustled a lot for a decade to make it as an actress and she’s hustling a lot now that she has established herself. She’s balancing all that with an engagement, too much interest in her life, supporting herself and her family and a bustling career. You can read her profile here. Some highlights:

She loves playing Cassie on Euphoria: “I love the spiral that Cassie goes down. [The darker material] is the easiest for me. I can access my emotions easily, so that’s just kind of what happens…. I like finding characters who challenge the viewer. I dyed my hair blonde and started dressing up for photoshoots and people thought that is who I am. I worked really hard to change that perception of myself, especially in high school.”

Her teenage years: “I had boobs before other girls and I felt ostracised for it. I was embarrassed and I never wanted to change in the locker room. I think that I put on this weird persona other people had of me because of my body. So I did play every sport and I studied really hard and I did everything that people wouldn’t think I would do, to show them that my body doesn’t define who I am. [I still do that] but now it’s on a whole-world scale.”

Whether she resents nepo babies: “I might have had to work longer to get through the same door they were able to walk through. But there’s nothing I can do. I never knew that existed until I got to this place and then I was like, ‘What the f–k was I doing for 10 years?!’”

The whole “are your parents MAGA” conversation: “Honestly I feel like nothing I say can help the conversation. It’s been turning into a wildfire and nothing I can say will take it back to the correct track.”

She reads the comments: “I’ll see people say, ‘She needs to get media training’. Why, do you want to see a robot? I don’t think there’s any winning.” Does she read the comments? “Sadly, yes.”

She’s seen addiction in her own family: “I come from a family of Cassies and [recovering drug addict in the show] Rues. Mostly Rues. I’ve never actually tried any drug, never drank, because I’ve seen my aunts, uncles, cousins, and the effect not just on that person but the community surrounding them. It’s hard to watch someone want to destroy themselves. It’s hard when people judge people they don’t know.”

On abortion: “When I was doing The Handmaid’s Tale I had a lot of women come up to me and tell me how much the show meant to them.” With the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, the series feels darker and more urgent than ever. “People were like, ‘Oh no that’ll never happen.’ I honestly don’t know how we’re in the place that we’re in.”

Naked screenshots from her work appearing online: “It got to the point where they were tagging my family. My cousins don’t need that. It’s completely disgusting and unfair. You have a character that goes through the scrutiny of being a sexualised person at school and then an audience that does the same thing.”

[From British GQ]

The lack-of-media-training thing is interesting, because from what I’ve seen, she’s managed to deftly side-step a lot of political conversations without saying much of anything. There are media-trained billionaires who can’t accomplish that. Her parents are likely MAGA and she hasn’t thrown them under the bus, nor has she engaged with any of the online conversations about it, and she sidestepped it again here. Her answer on abortion is noncommittal too. We don’t know her personal politics, her fans have just assumed that she’s liberal. She hasn’t indicated either way.

As for developing early… I’ve said this before, but I filled out pretty young too, and I know it warped me, especially with body image, not so much with the way people treated me. My default, to this day, is baggier shirts and sweaters to somehow mask how top heavy I am. Sydney is different – she’s really, um, chest forward these days.

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